Ippudo

Laura and I looked at each other as soon as we sat down, "This place is so New York."  Sure, Ippudo had a 20 minute wait at 11pm.  And the dark, slick interior is cool as can be.  Thumping club music bounces offs the wall and all the servers and cooks yell out greeting in Japanese to each new party.  The point is, Ippudo oozes atmosphere.  And places that do that usually get by with average or good food.

But Ippudo has amazing food.  Truly delicious.  Japanese gourmet ramen.  A concept that sounds so simple until you taste it. 

My recommendation: Order the pork buns for an appetizers and stick with the classic ramen.  Laura and I both loved our dishes, large bowls filled with noodles and other fresh ingredients.

Bottom Line: Ippudo has top notch food and atmosphere.  It's cool and delicious.  That's rare, and is why there is still a wait for dinner at 11pm.

East Village, on 4th Ave between 9th and 10th

Buddakan

Buddakan is the quintessential Steven Starr restaurant. The food is goodish, and the atmosphere is great. The price is more than it should be, especially for drinks, but the majority of your money is going to decor and ambiance.

Nonetheless, I have been looking forward to dining here for a while. I was treating myself, and really wanted to enjoy the whole experience. I made my way to the bar and ordered a cocktail, awakening. It was made with Jose Cuervo, a thai chili, and pineapple juice, and was well made. Still, cocktails here are 10-13, plus tax and tip, which seems to be a bit much. There are some decent beer options available, I remember 60 IPA being $6. I was out with my friend Lena, and once I got to the table I split a pitcher of sangria, which was good an lasted the whole meal. Our server was attentive about filling up our glasses through out the night.

The service over all is good here. All of the dishes come out with good timing and are set in the middle for sharing. For starters we ordered the Kobe beef skewers and dumplings. Both of these were fine, nothing amazing, didn't have incredible flavor. My favorite part of the whole meal was my entree. I ordered the sea bass; it had great flavor, and was served with butternut squash. Lena ordered the Asian Pork BBQ, which was served medium rare and was good. The BBQ flavor was light but tasty. The weird thing about this dish was it was served with huge onion rings, and they seemed out of place.

For dessert we both went with a dish called Crying Chocolate. It was a small lava cake served with a dollop of Vietnamese coffee ice cream. We both really liked the dessert, Lena said the ice cream had a really authentic flavor; it was strong. I liked the cake a lot and it was a great way to finish out dinner.

Bottom Line: Service is decent, and atmosphere is great. The food isn't going to amaze you, but like all Starr restaurants, it's a nice experience.

Chifa

Chifa was my first stop for restaurant week. I was excited for my first stop at a Jose Garces restaurant, as the man has quickly become Steven Starr's main competitor over the last few years. Restaurant week is when over a hundred restaurants over the city offer a three course, prix fix meal for $35. However, portions and quality vary greatly.

I met with my friend Bryana and we were seated quickly, right on time for our reservations. The atmosphere is weird here. Low lights, modern/trendy decorations, terrible but trying to be

cool and in the background music. Overall, it just wasn't my thing. This doesn't make a huge difference though. Our server was excellent. Attentive and friendly, she made the dining experience better.

The menu is Peruvian/Asian fusion food, which sounded random until our server explained. You should ask during your visit. The menu

is set up for sharing, and between the two of us we ordered four different first courses, four seconds, and two desserts. I also opted for the wine pairing which offered a glass of red and white wine. While not amazing, they were modestly prices and matched well with a majority of the food. I also opted for the wine because the beer list was average and overpriced: Flying Fish, Dogfish Head, PBC, ect for $6 or $7.

Dishes are brought out in the order they are prepared, which was a bit faster than I wanted to eat them. We started of with civiche, which was deliciously well prepared. Our pork belly bun came out next, which is a star of the menu. The meat was delicious, but I thought the bun was bland and in poor ratio to the rest of the dish. Despite my complaint, Bryana declared it her favorite dish. We had spring rolls next, which were my favorite. They were flaky and perfectly seasoned. The BBQ ribs were the last of the first courses. It was good, but if you want ribs, go to a place that does ribs, because I wasn't impressed. The meat wasn't memorably tender, and the sauce was average.

Pho started our second course. This dish was poorly made. The spiciness from the jalapenos

overpowered any other taste it might have had. Further it was made from noodles only a few inches long, making it almost impossible to eat with a fork or the provided chop sticks. We were served mussels next, which were great. The sauce was thick and flavorful, the best mussels I've had outside a Belgian joint. Another fantastic dish came out next, seasoned rice mixed with scallops. Chifa did the best job with the seafood dishes. Our last dish before dessert were mushrooms, and they come out in a dish that looked like a pot pie. The crust was unnecessary, but the mushrooms were cooked in a great sauce and were excellent wild mushrooms.

We had hit and miss dishes for both courses. We sampled both desserts from the menu. The first was coconut and passionfruit sorbet dish. This was nice and tangy, but not the way I love to end my meal. I was much more into the other dessert, chocolate ganache with hazelnut brittle.

Bottom Line: With the offerings of a lot of different dishes, the portions are small, but the meal ends up being adequate. Our server told me that the restaurant week menu was a good representation of the regular menu. The whole night was good, but hit or miss. I would have been disappointed if I paid full price, and I honestly can't see myself going back again. If you do have a strong urge to try this place out, opt for the small $18 lunch special. It's almost exactly half of the restaurant week dinner offering. Chifa cooks up interesting fusion dishes, but doesn't quite hit the nail on the head.

Essentials:

707 Chestnut St

215-925-5555

Avg dinner: 35-55

Cash Only: No

Reservations: Required

Pod

I've been on a Steven Starr kick recently, so when my Mom came into town, wanting to take me out, I decided to pick A restaurant that has easy enough parking, was expensive, but not too expensive, and a place that I've never been to. Pod, here we come.

Upon entering, I was instantly impressed with the decor. All of the Starr restaurants that I've been to have a cool feeling, with Pod opting for neon lights, smooth flowing curves on all surfaces (chairs and ceiling included). Anime was playing on a screen in the background.

There were three crowds: preppy college studs enjoying happy hour, small parties sitting around the long table with a built in conveyor belt on which small sushi dishes circulate, and small parties at tables.

The service wasn't great, but I'm convinced that had mostly to do with our particular server, and was not representative of the restaurant as a whole. The menu has a not so varied far of Japanese, Chinese, and Thia dishes, sort of all combined. They use wasibi often and liberally, steer clear if you don't like it. I had the shrimp and scallop stiryfry. I liked my dish bestout of the rest at our table (Wasibi crusted filet mingnon, seseme crusted tuna, and veggie pad thia).

Dessert was the best part, the sweet 18, which had 9 different bite sized desserts; coconut macaroon, chocolate covered banana, candied apricot, tofu donut, brownie bite, ect. Two of each, and perfect for a party of four.

In the end, dinner was good, the place was kind of cool, but I just can't recommend it. If you're going to spend that kind of money, they're are many other places.

The Essentials:
Pod
3636 Sansom St.
215-387-1803
Avg Ent: 15-23
3/5

*Please comment. I'm trying this out. Let me know if it's too long, I don't focus on the right things, criticism, ect.*